Jamie Oliver upstages Sigourney Weaver in West End

Actors and audiences at Sigourney Weaver’s West End play are unhappy about the smell from a neighbouring restaurant.

The Theatre Royal Drury Lane is currently hosting The Tempest, starring Weaver, Jude Akuwudike and Jason Barnett.

Unfortunately, the aromas from TV chef Jamie Oliver’s Catherine St restaurant, which is in the same building, have been wafting into the theatre and upsetting the patrons.

A stagehand told the Daily Mail: “Recently it has become increasingly pungent. We are sick of it,” with an audience member also confiding, “Oddly, the theatre stank of roast pork, almost to a hallucinogenic degree.”

The Tempest, in which Alien star Weaver plays Prospero is a “sci-fi re-imagining” of Shakespeare’s play, and has been widely panned. Time Out magazine opined of Weaver, “She’s not a good verse speaker, delivering everything in a concerned-mum monotone. Having her on stage constantly feels like a sop to her celebrity that isn’t borne out by her ability.”

The play marks the first time Shakespeare has been performed at the theatre since Sir John Gielgud played Prospero in 1958.

At the final performance, Gielgud broke Prospero’s staff and vowed that “Shakespeare would never again be performed at the Theatre Royal”.

Current owner Andrew Lloyd Webber declared he was “determined to prove him wrong”.